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Friday, September 2, 2011

Wondercon is moving to Anahiem for 2012

Comic-con International has announced that they will be moving Wondercon to the Anaheim Convention Center for 2012 (source). Wondercon is a comic-book convention like Comic-con, but it has been headquartered in San Francisco since it first started in 1987. The reason behind the move is the renovations being done in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Due to the move being based on renovating a convention center, this event will likely be a one-time only event and Wondercon 2013 will likely be back in San Francisco.
When the rumors of the move started circulating around, the convention attendees freaked out because a certain other famous convention called Anime Expo also originally started in Northern California. Anime Expo was officially started in 1992, and stayed in Northern California during Anime Expo 1992 and Anime Expo 1993, but moved south to Anaheim for Anime Expo 1994. Since I was not in the organization at the time I don't know the motivation for moving to Southern California, but the move from Northern California to Southern California left a huge impact on the convention community in the north and it did set a precedent of moving a con south and hitting new levels of success.

For one year we get to experience the awesome Wondercon in Southern California. The convention will be in the Anaheim Convention Center March 16-18th, which is the same weekend as Anime Conji. Since I will do both cons, I will probably do Wondercon in Friday and Anime Conji on Saturday.